Always
by Jasmk16
Summary: I cried many nights knowing that one day you would be reading this and I would be at fault for your heartache


**A/N: I wrote a short story a while ago and came across it today.**

**I really love this story and since I really love Jori I decided to Jori it up.  
Here is the Jori Version of it (:  
Hope you enjoy! ^_^**

**I only own Victorious in my mind! [k**

Jade received an invitation to her tenth year Hollywood Arts high school reunion one afternoon. It had been years since she had last heard from any of her classmates. She fell out of touch with her closest friends after they had gone their separate ways. After reading the invitation and packing she decided to go browse through some memories. She dug around her old high school box that was filled with notes and books. She came across her senior yearbook. The last time she had opened the book was on graduation night. As she opened it out fell a folded piece of paper.

Curiously she opened the mysterious paper and was left speechless upon reading it. It was from her the young Vega, Tori. After starting off on the wrong end they grew close through their high school career but failed to keep in touch after. She found herself crying after reading the brunette's note. Jade anxiously searched the whole yearbook desperate to find a way to contact the girl. There was no number, no e-mail, nor an address. She sighed irritated with herself. She did not understand how she had failed to keep in contact with her.

The girl had asked Jade to meet her by the park the night of graduation after the ceremony. She had waited for her. She had wanted to tell the Goth something. Who knew how long she had waited. The dark haired girl began to cry. She had stood her up and would never know what it was the girl had to say.

In the morning the alarm startled her awake. She had fallen asleep with the note in her hand. As she sat up she noticed Tori's signature was stamped on her wrist. She ran her fingers softly over her name. She had cried herself to sleep. Her flight left in less than an hour. Since all her bags were packed, all there was left to do was dress and leave. On the plane all her mind could do was wander on about how Tori must look. The girl was beautiful. She wondered how much she had changed over the years. She had the most captivating chocolate brown eyes and cutest dimpled smile. She was fit, of course with all the activities she had been involved with. She was lucky to have any sort of time with the tan girl. It seemed like the brunette was always caught up in some school activity.

Secretly the raven haired girl had crushed on the half-Latina, but she always feared that it would ruin their friendship if she told her. She did not understand how they fell out of contact. They were pretty much inseparable once they had become friends. They had gone to prom together since the Canadian and the Goth had broken up a year before. She sighed at the memories and blinked out tears. She really hoped the girl had not changed. The Latina had changed her so much through the years. Jade had grown a soft spot.

The welcoming luncheon with her family had been amazing. Her neighbors and friends had gathered to make her feel at home. After everyone had left, she had gone straight to her old room to change for the reunion. She smiled at the picture that welcomed her. It sat on the drawer by her bed. It was a picture of Tori with her arms around her, hugging her from behind. The picture was perfect. She could see the gorgeous brown eyes and dimples. The brunette was holding her close as they laughed. She couldn't recall what was so funny, but she did remember that the day had been memorable. They had gone to a picnic with a couple of friends and spent the entire day at the park just talking and joking until dawn.

Long after all their friends had left they had stayed behind to enjoy the star filled sky. She remembered the full moon perfectly. It had slowly disappeared when the sun began to rise. Tori had wrapped her arms around her when she began to tremble from the cold weather. That was the day she had finally come to the realization that she was in love with the young Vega. She did not tell her. She could not. It was all too perfect to risk. She sighed and set the picture back down. When it was time to leave for the dinner, Jade took one last look in the mirror and sighed. She had to tell her this time.

At the dinner she was mesmerized by the decorations. It looked like a scene from a movie. It looked very formal with dim lights and numerous of people all dressed up and drinking as they chatted each other up. Her eyes quickly scanned the room for the familiar brunette. She was nowhere to be found. Perhaps the Goth had arrived early. She casually greeted some old teachers and friends. The perky red head had a diamond ring on her left hand and was accompanied by the curly haired puppeteer. Beck had a lovely yet quiet annoying blonde haired girl glued to his hip and the dark skinned boy seemed to be extremely happy to be back with the gang. He seemed to be doing well in the music industry. Jade found it strange that none of them had brought up the young Vega.

Every once in a while the blue eyed girl would search again for the familiar chocolate eyes and friendly smile. It was never around. She felt herself begin to grow anxious. She felt eager to see her. Finally she settled at a table with the gang and listened on about what had happened over the years. She sighed and looked down at her laced hands that sat firmly on her lap. An old friend sat beside her and they began to exchange stories. Jade could not take it any longer. She decided it was time to ask about Tori. Someone was bound to know. She excused herself from the table and approached the welcoming table that was covered with name tags. She had grabbed hers upon entrance.

As she neared, the kind lady looked up and greeted her once more. Jade furrowed her brows dumbfounded. Tori's name was nowhere among the cluster of tags. She was sure she had looked around the entire room in search of the brown haired girl. The lady kindly asked if she was in need of anything. Hesitantly Jade cleared her throat and asked if Tori Vega had checked in. The lady's smile slowly faded. Jade felt her heart race with panic. The lady rose from her seat and walked around the table. She stopped to collect two sealed envelopes from her purse and three medium sized photo albums from underneath the table.

The lady sighed and smiled sadly. Jade felt her heart thump furiously against her chest. She did not want to hear what the woman had to say. The lady gently explained to her that a couple weeks before graduation Tori had gone to doctor for a checkup. She had immediately been diagnosed with a terminal illness a couple of days later. Jade clenched her jaw in attempt to control her tears. She balled her hands into tight fists as the lady went on. Tori seemed fine at first but after a couple a weeks of treatment she quickly became ill. She spent most of her days sleeping. Whenever she was awake she would spend it with her parents and the older Vega. Other times she would go through photo albums with pictures of Jade and her. Staring at the brown eyed lady, Jade recognized she had been speaking to Tori's mother.

Jade and given Tori the albums for her birthday. She bit her lip, trying to control her tears once more. She lasted longer than the doctors had expected. They had given the brunette a couple of months. She fought the disease for a year until finally her heart gave in. The last night of Tori's life she spent it with her parents and Trina watching movies. A couple of days before she had asked her mother to make sure Jade received both envelopes and the photo albums on their ten year reunion. Jade swallowed hard. She asked the question she knew would break her heart.

She had been gone for nine years. The tired looking Vega handed her the envelopes and photo albums before returning to her seat. Jade excused herself and left the hall. When she was finally alone in her car she set the albums beside her and sobbed. She started the car and drove to their park.

The tree they used to sit under was still standing nice and tall. She couldn't bear the thought of the Latina in so much pain. She longed to see her beautiful smile again. Quickly she turned to look at the books beside her and grabbed them as she stepped out of the car to go sit against the tree's trunk. She held the albums and envelopes protectively against her. She recognized the first two albums. One was green and the other was light brown. The last album was red. She had never set eyes on it. She gently picked it up. The cover had her name written in cursive; it was _her_ writing. She smiled to herself as she brushed her fingers over the writing. Gently she opened it.

Inside the cover was a short message. It read: "_To Jade, my sweet sunshine." _She swallowed a sob. It took all her strength to turn the page. The first picture was from the girl's first day at Hollywood Arts. She had her arm over the Goth's shoulder and had one of the biggest grins. Her cheeks were crimson from the impact of their bodies being so close.

Beneath the picture read: "_I knew it from the beginning." _She stared at the picture. The brunette's smile was so amazing. She turned the page and found the picture from the night of the school carnival. They had both painted their faces at one of the booths that was raising money for a charity. She read the line below: _"You changed me."_ She smiled to herself, remembering how the girl had pleaded her to paint their faces together. Jade had finally given in only to chase the girl all around the carnival, teasing her for laughing at how adorable she looked.

The next picture was the night of prom. She had worn an ivory green dress; her favorite color. Tori had asked her to prom the second week school had started their senior year. She smiled at the memory of how the brunette had been acted strange that day. She had blushed like crazy when she finally gathered enough courage to ask the Goth. Below the picture read: _"You were the most beautiful girl there." _She blinked tears. Tori never once took her eyes off Jade that night. She had gently stroked her cheek before kissing it good night when she walked her to the door.

The following pages were covered with many pictures of them hugging and laughing. By the time she reached the final page she could barely see the image with the tears nearly blinding her. It was the picture she had stared at over and over every night before she fell asleep. She loved that picture. They were both smiling and so happy. She read the line below and felt her heart tighten immediately. _"I will always love you, Jade."_ She smiled at the words. She could not believe that all along she had loved her in return. She closed the album and hugged it to her.

The envelopes sat beside her. She picked one up and gently opened the letter. It was dated the day after graduation. It read:

"_My dearest Jade,_

_I waited for you to arrive last night after graduation. I will confess to you that I was disappointed when you didn't show, but knowing you I was aware that you might have missed the note I left. It was hidden well and I was partly to blame for you missing it. Aside from last night I wanted to tell you something I should have told you a long time ago. We have grown closer through the years, but I knew it from the beginning. It took me a while to see it, but the signs were always there. I am sorry it took me so long to understand what I really felt for you. I knew I loved you from the moment I saw you. There was something that just drew me to you when I laid my eyes on you. I never believed in love at first sight until I saw you. You proved me wrong. You changed me in so many ways and you don't even know it. I thank you for everything. For being my friend, my strength my joy, my sunshine. You were everything I looked forward to every day. You are probably gone by now. I know I wished you the best of luck in your life and I meant it. All I want is for you to be happy. I do not know if you will ever get this letter, but if you do, I want you to know, Jade that I love you. I love you so much that I know it is better to let you go. I would not bear with myself if I was the reason to detain you from fulfilling your dreams. You were my best friend, my sunshine, my day, my night, and my life. You will always be all of these things. You are a beautiful and smart woman and I know you can accomplish many things. I hope you make all your dreams come true. You deserve it; that and much more. In a way I am glad you did not show last night. I will always regret not telling you that I love you, but I can rest at ease knowing that I did not prevent you from making your dreams a reality. I am sorry I will not be at your record breaking celebrations. You probably wondered why I did not give you a way to contact me. I figured it was easier for you to move on without having to suffer with the pain of my loss. I should have told you that I was diagnosed with cancer. I am sorry I failed to do so. You will probably be mad with me. I can already imagine your pouty face. I always loved that pouty face of yours. It is probably why I enjoyed fighting with you so much. The doctors tell me it is far too advanced. They are going to try to treat it, but I know they are only doing it to try and give me some hope. I am sorry I didn't tell you. I suppose I was too much of coward. I just feared that you would turn and run, but I also feared that I would hold you back. If you ever do receive this letter, I hope you know I did not intend it in a selfish way. I did it because I wanted you to be happy. Please forgive me. I love you, Jade . I always have and always will._

_Love,_

_Tori_

She did not bother wiping her tears anymore; it was pointless. She could never be upset with her. It always seemed impossible. No matter the circumstance, the brunette never failed to find the right words to mend and make it all better. There was no reason for the girl to ask of her forgiveness. She needed not to forgive her. She should have been the one apologizing. She sobbed in frustration. It made her furious that she never once suspected any of it. Tori had been sick for weeks and she had been blind. She felt so guilty for breaking the girl's request. She folded back the letter and placed it in its envelope.

Hesitantly, she picked up the second envelope which had her name written neatly with a penguin drawn next to it. She smiled as she pictured the brunette drawing. Of course Tori knew she loved penguins. The young Vega had once told her that once penguins found their mate they would stay together forever. Jade was not sure if she would be able to handle the second letter. She felt her stomach tighten as she slowly opened the second envelope and began to read.

"_My dear Jade,_

_Let me start by saying that I am sorry. I know I promised to take you back to our park for our ten year reunion. I hate breaking promises. Especially ones I make to you. It really tore me when I realized I was not going to be able to keep my word. It has been over a year now since I last saw you. Well spoke to you. I look at your picture every day. I have convinced myself that you are the reason I have managed to fight this sickness for so long. I have not given up hope. I have tried to stay strong. I know you would never want me to give up. Secretly I hoped that you would one day come through my front door to announce you love me. I do not need to hear you say it though. I looked through the photo albums you gave me one day and came to the understanding that you love me too. It was always there for the both of us. I am satisfied with knowing that you did love me. I love you, too. I never stopped. I never will. It is not possible to forget someone like you, Jade. I never told you that I love your smile or that I love your beautiful blue eyes. I love how you blushed every time you giggle and how you purse your lips whenever you are confused. I love how you can take one look at me and make the world disappear. I could go on with an endless list of all the things I love about you and never tire. I am sorry I do not have enough time to say them all. There is one thing I can rest at ease with though. Even though I did not get the opportunity to say the words themselves I said it all through everything we shared. There was never any doubt of my love for you. It took me sometime to understand it but when I finally did, it all made sense. Every look, every laugh, every word between you and I were my ways of expressing my feelings for you. You did the same. Everything you did let me know that you loved me. When I think about you, I feel a little sad because I did not see it sooner. All those beautiful memories gave me enough strength to make it this far. If there is one thing I regret it is not kissing you the night I dropped you off after prom. I was too much of a coward and kissed your cheek instead. Silly as it may seem that one kiss meant the world to me. I love you so much Jade. So much that it has kept my heart strong all this time. I have not given up fighting this disease. I want you to know that I fought this until the end. I do not ask anything of you, love. Only one thing. Please do not regret going away. Knowing you, you will probably find a way to blame yourself. That is impossible. If anything, your love gave me the strength I needed to fight. You did not tell me you love me, but like I did you must have figured that I love you, too. I will admit that I was angry at first when I became sick. It was so unfair! I did not understand why this was happening to me. I wanted to crawl under a rock and hide from it. I was so afraid of what would happen to me, my mom and dad and Trina. Even worse, you! I finally came to peace my mind with the conclusion that life had its reasons for this to happen. I am not being punished. Everything has its time in this life and my time has met its point. I was blessed with one more year of life. I assure you that these days have been the most serene. I wish you could be with me right now. I love you so much Jade. I will not lie and say it does not scare me to know I have a short time left. I am terrified at the thought of leaving all of those I love. I will never truly leave you though. We all leave trails to be remembered by. Everyone is left with some part of me. I want you to know that my heart was and always will be yours. I asked this letter and photo albums be given to you on our school reunion night. If I know you, you have probably gone back to our park. I suppose in a way I kept my promise and brought you back here. Please do not cry for me. I cried many nights knowing that one day you would be reading this and I would be at fault for your heartache. I always hated seeing you upset. You look so beautiful when you smile. If you do cry for me, I hope they are tears of joy from all our beautiful memories together. I love you with all my heart. I always have and always will, Jade._

_Forever yours,_

_Tori Vega_

_P.S. You were always my penguin._

Jade stared at the letter speechless. She was not sure if she felt relieved or heartbroken. She wanted to be angry at Tori for not telling her about her illness, but she knew her. She was right. Had she told her, without a doubt Jade would have dropped everything and stayed. Part of her wished Tori would have been selfish and let her stay, but the other part thanked her. Tori had always encouraged her not to give up and work hard to make her dreams comes true. In the end she had helped her make them a reality. She folded back the letter and closed her eyes.

She was right about everything. Deep down they had both known they loved one another. She loved the brunette enough to keep her strong and she loved the dark haired girl enough to let her go. She opened her eyes in time to see a shooting star cross the leisurely dawning sky. The sighting caused her heart to flutter as a smile slowly appeared on her lips. She knew then that everything was going to be alright. It was Tori turn to be her strength. She had arrived at the reunion fearing it would be too late for her to know she loved her. But she was never late.

Tori had loved her from the beginning and knew she did, too. She smiled remembering the words the half-Latina loved to say so much. _"It is never too late."_ She nodded to herself in agreement and stood. Tori was her strength now. She smiled and admired the sun as it began to light the sky. No matter how much time passed, Jade would always love Tori and Tori would always love Jade.

**Review please!**

**What did you think?**

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**(;**

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